Coronavirus

[faizoff]

Ah nothing like tech talk in a coronavirus thread. I can't remember the last time I've used a browser without any kind of adblocking plugin. I use the usual suspects of adblock and adblock plus, ghostery, ublock origin, adguard. I go back and forth with noscript since it involves quite a bit of configuration and uses to set it correctly by which at some point you become frustrated to still configuring rather than just browsing.

Also be aware that some websites detect your ad blocking and privacy tracing blockers and won't display the pages until you turn the blockers off. Some will kindly ask you to disable but still allow you to view the webpage. YMMV.

I use enhancer for Youtube that gives additional controls on layout etc..

I've been using duckduckgo for years now and rarely ever go to google to search anything. I do use google products (gmail & maps) but am really trying not to be dependent on just one company for a one size fits all browsing experience.


I've been using Firefox for ages as well, when they switched to the new build engine which made things vastly faster. I do like the new Edge browser that uses the chromium engine, it works just as fast the other browsers and allows a ton of configuration these days, infact that's what I've been using the past few months. I might go back to Firefox though.

[eric42434224]

I use a program called “I just ignore the ads”.
Works pretty well for me.

[MoraWintersoul]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think as many people experience this as they think. They believe they are, but they're not. They interpret themselves as "thinking" about something and getting ads, but in reality they've been broadcasting their interests for a long time.

See, I would think so too, except the exact same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was talking about getting married within the earshot of my phone and computer and a few days later I got wedding dress advertisements. I wasn't telling it to anyone except my family, in the same room, just talking to them, and I wasn't browsing for anything wedding-related because we were just going to go to the city hall. It was a very casual "so I'm going to be doing this sometime this year" kind of thing. And yet there they were.

[faizoff]

 And add Duckduckgo or StartPage as your default search engine, and you'll get a double wammy of privacy awesomeness.

Nice! I use it too and love it. Wasn't sure if it was that widely used but I used to have Awesome Tab back in my chrome days.

[ErHaO]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think as many people experience this as they think. They believe they are, but they're not. They interpret themselves as "thinking" about something and getting ads, but in reality they've been broadcasting their interests for a long time.

See, I would think so too, except the exact same thing happened to me a few years ago. I was talking about getting married within the earshot of my phone and computer and a few days later I got wedding dress advertisements. I wasn't telling it to anyone except my family, in the same room, just talking to them, and I wasn't browsing for anything wedding-related because we were just going to go to the city hall. It was a very casual "so I'm going to be doing this sometime this year" kind of thing. And yet there they were.

Well, think of all the not-so relevant commercials you get that you just glance over and forget. Statistically there will be such incidents by default.

Another possibility is that people you interact with did search for it and algorithms link you. Or a profile based on your assumed age/gender and/or related interests.

While I know all kind of algorithms are monitoring everyone, there are still a hell of a lot of caveats to them. The fact that I got months of laptop commercials while browsing on my brand new laptop (and the same for my phone) or get commercials for a degree I already obtained shows me the process is faulty. I'd say 20% of online commercials I get are relevant to me, at best. And those are the ones that are usually the result of something I literally just googled or from the online shop I just clicked.

[Northern Lion]

 And add Duckduckgo or StartPage as your default search engine, and you'll get a double wammy of privacy awesomeness.

Nice! I use it too and love it. Wasn't sure if it was that widely used but I used to have Awesome Tab back in my chrome days.

Yeah, I've been a fan of StartPage for years, too bad it hasn't gotten as much traction as Duckduckgo.  But both are great.

[SystematicThought]

Coke has dramatically cut down its SKUs.

It’s nice to know that it’s not just here in Minnesota that they are cutting SKUs. It’s been interesting seeing what disappears. Couldn’t get ramen back in stock until June, now canning supplies are gone. Yeast still continues to be hit and miss, having trouble getting certain pastas from Italy, meat substitutes have been hard to get. It’s very interesting. For yeast, we’re looking at building up stock for the holidays with what we get right now.

[Northern Lion]

Coke has dramatically cut down its SKUs.

It’s nice to know that it’s not just here in Minnesota that they are cutting SKUs. It’s been interesting seeing what disappears. Couldn’t get ramen back in stock until June, now canning supplies are gone. Yeast still continues to be hit and miss, having trouble getting certain pastas from Italy, meat substitutes have been hard to get. It’s very interesting. For yeast, we’re looking at building up stock for the holidays with what we get right now.

yeah, I know what you mean. And California is locked down again.  I expect we'll see more food shortages soon. And if there ends up being a second wave in the fall, things could go back to the way they were a few months ago. We've been stocking up as well just in case. We figure if we have a 3 month supply of all the essentials saved up then we should be good.

[Cool Chris]

My store was out of ramen for a good few weeks, much to the disappointment of my daughter (and myself). It was really the only grocery item we buy regularly that my store was always out of. Tortillas were often in short supply. Same with rice. And I noticed there was always a dearth of flour. Everyone stuck at home took up baking, I guess.

I've noticed some stores posting signs saying there is a national coin shortage, and to have exact change if paying by cash.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Ramen was out of stock for ages here. Fortunately, I had stocked up several weeks before people started to panic buy, mostly out of coincidence.

[DragonAttack]

A woman who became a good friend during my time volunteering and being a Site Coordinator for Meals On Wheels years ago is now hospitalized.  Considering she worked in the East Wing during Eisenhower's last two years in the White House, her outlooks are not promising.  She was still volunteering once a week.

And one of my twin nieces tested positive yesterday, and has been sick for a couple of days. Her Mom drove down from Maryland to Nashville late last night.  Our niece is 25, has a Master's, and also has Lupus and 'something' that caused her hair to drastically thin out years ago.  Smart, educated......and yet she flew down to Florida two weeks ago with her 'this guy is a bit controlling and somewhat of a loser' boyfriend, as well as attending a comedy show in Nashville.  No one wore masks at that club, plenty of pix with her and friends hugging.       her!  Of all people, she should have known better. 

Even with the best outcome, this is going to affect her for months/years to come.

We visited with her last October, but I could not go to our family get together at her parents last Christmas,  because I had that weird two week all I could do was sleep preCovid flu.

frick, frick, frick

[Northern Lion]

That is sad DragonAttack.  I hope she recovers OK.

I don't know if it's been discussed on here or not, but there was a story in the news about a "Covid-19" party that happened and a young man in his 30's? ended up contracting it and died in the hospital.  From what I remember from the article, his last words to the doctor were "I think I made a big mistake".  Then he died.

I don't believe tempting fate is a good idea.

[DragonAttack]

^
Well, I hope the hosts paid him .........

[TAC]

Damn Joe, that is all bad. Hope they recover!

[DragonAttack]

If my comment would have been visible and audible, it would have started with a sigh, then said in a low tone whilst shaking my head. 

I don't wish for them to get 'it', I just wish they would get 'it'...ie, the seriousness of it all.  I can see where some buckle under peer pressure to show up or get dragged to things like that, just so they won't be considered as a wuss.  It could have happened to me at that age.

[Cool Chris]

There is no reason anyone over the age of 13 should succumb to any level of "peer pressure."

[TAC]

There is no reason anyone over the age of 13 should succumb to any level of "peer pressure."

That's strong.

[ReaperKK]

My company doesn't do any of the data collecting, they just match it with ads so I don't know, but my guess is it listens to everything because of the many examples of people experiencing that.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think as many people experience this as they think. They believe they are, but they're not. They interpret themselves as "thinking" about something and getting ads, but in reality they've been broadcasting their interests for a long time. I might be "thinking" about BBQ sauce all afternoon, but haven't searched for BBQ sauce online. If I'm scrolling through Instagram and their algorithms note that I spend 18% more time looking at BBQ related pictures over the average of anything else, it could easily deduce that I got BBQ sauce in some capacity on my mind. I didn't have to search for anything specific, or tell anyone verbally about my interest in BBQ. The simple act of slowing down the rate at which I scroll through my feed when BBQ is present is more than enough to identify what's on my mind.

My mom is super guilty of this. "I was thinking about how I needed new yarn the other day and immediately started seeing ads for it. I think my phone was listening when I told your father". Well, maybe. But also consider that she buys hundreds of dollars worth of yarn per year, both in store and on Amazon. The internet knows she likes to knit, as does Michael's. It's no secret. Also, it's entirely possible she's been seeing ads for knitting stuff all the time and just tunes them out. They only reason she noticed them this most recent time was because she was just thinking about it and actually needs what's being advertised to her.


Also, people think of hundreds of things a day. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then. 

I really wish I could remember the pod cast that goes into this exact point of how using ai it's not that hard to figure out what you're interested in by simple buying/browing/location habits. 

[Orbert]

A couple years ago, I started seeing Facebook ads for pinball machines.  I'm talking about real Bally or Williams tables from the 70's and 80's.  Apparently there are companies out there that refurbish them and sell them for thousands of dollars.  Okay, if I had thousands of dollars to spend on something like that, that would definitely be cool.  But why I am seeing all these ads all of a sudden?

After a couple weeks of this, my buddy John back in Michigan posts some pictures of the awesome pinball machine he bought online, one of the ones we spent countless hours on back when we were kids.  Facebook knew he was looking around for one, and figured his friends might be interested as well.  Next time we got together at his house (this is all pre-COVID, obviously) we played a few rounds, and I said that that explains why I was seeing Facebook ads for pinballs machines.  Everyone else said the same thing.  Facebook knows.  I don't know if it was smart enough to target only friends about the same age, as opposed to his kids and his kids' friends that he's friends with, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[Cool Chris]

Not sure what is more terrifying at this point; the virus, the way online marketing has inundated our lives, or a nationwide shortage of ramen and Coke.

[eric42434224]

Not sure what is more terrifying at this point; the virus, the way online marketing has inundated our lives, or a nationwide shortage of ramen and Coke.

Have WildRanger start a poll.

[gmillerdrake]

Not sure what is more terrifying at this point; the virus, the way online marketing has inundated our lives, or a nationwide shortage of ramen and Coke.

Have WildRanger start a poll.

[PetFish]

There is no reason anyone over the age of 13 should succumb to any level of "peer pressure."

That's strong.

Ya.  Pretty harsh.  There's countless adults that succumb to peer pressure such as in this typical example:

"I'm not drinking tonight."
"Come on, just one, it won't be as fun with us if you don't drink."
"Ok."

I would say, however, that if I knew then what I know now I would have been stronger-willed growing up.  I did stanground pretty well for myself but there's definitely some moments I wish I could do over.

[Cool Chris]

Yes it was harsh, and it bit over the top, but I was going for a little hyperbole. I did not intend it to be interpreted maliciously - hard to tell over the internet, I forget sometimes. I have also been essentially a loner for my adult life, not counting my beloved wife. So any and all f'ups I've made (there are plenty) I can only attribute to myself.

On topic... no one here but me seems to be talking about what schools are going to do in the fall. I have double the bested interest in this with a kid in 4th grade and a teacher for a wife. My wife works with special needs kids who 1) are going to be less likely to want to wear a mask, wash their hands, observe social distance, and 2) need more hands-on (literally) learning, so is especially concerned about her health and safety. There is a bunch of talk about getting kids back to school when it is "safe" but no real discussion about what "safe" means in this context.

[TAC]

Our town has to submit an initial plan to the state by 7/31, and a more comprehensive plan by 8/10.

I would imagine they've been given guidelines by the State.


I'm not sure anyone knows what will be "safe".

[lordxizor]

I find the whole school thing intriguing. My kids will be unaffected because we've homeschooled them for many years before all of this. It's not just about the virus and possible spread. It's about social isolation for kids, domestic abuse at home increasing during stay-at-home orders, the fact that many kids only eat when they're at school, and a whole lot of other factors weighing in favor of kids being physically at school. It almost seems like no one wants to be the first school to make a final decision on what they're doing. Everyone is waiting for someone else to decide so they can follow suit.

[The Walrus]

I've seen the plans for my local schools... half the kids come in on A day, half the kids come in on B day... they're trying to do half days at school and half at home... I don't see how any of this works or helps with the pandemic at all. You have teachers chopping up their entire schedules, effectively having two sets of kids instead of one. Then you have to hope everybody gets home and online in time for remote learning, if all the kids can even access the Internet. Then you have to hope everybody pays attention and has the same material and can contact the teacher. And if you have the kids together in the same room once, you already risk transmitting the virus, it doesn't matter if you do some crazy complex scheduling after that.

Just seems like a clusterfuck all around.

[jingle.boy]

Just seems like a clusterfuck all around.

Pretty much.  It's a shit show for everyone - gov't, school boards, administrators, teachers, parents, students.  There is NO good option - only trying to find the least-worst one.

[The Walrus]

But I just don't get it, if you're already having kids there for even half a day, why not just have school all day. Why complicate it with all this other bullshit? Elementary school kids can barely focus on school under normal conditions. I think people are fooling themselves into thinking all these complex plans are actually helping when they're... probably not doing much to prevent the spread since you are, at some point, grouping everybody together. At some point we're just going to have to return to our normal lives. A high school or college student isn't going to have nearly the same consequences as a younger, developing mind from missing a semester of quality education...

[Orbert]

I thought the idea with having half the kids there at a time was so that they could be spread out more, with more space between each desk/seat and hallways less crowded, etc.

[Chino]

I thought the idea with having half the kids there at a time was so that they could be spread out more, with more space between each desk/seat and hallways less crowded, etc.

It means less kids on each bus as well.

[cramx3]

Some positive news today

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53469839

https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/good-news/coronavirus-vaccine-by-september-oxford-university-trial-on-track-astrazeneca-634907

seems we are getting close to a working vaccine that will be available this fall

[Stadler]

There is no reason anyone over the age of 13 should succumb to any level of "peer pressure."

If only.   The problem is, of course, that most people succumb to it without even knowing it. 

[MirrorMask]

There is no reason anyone over the age of 13 should succumb to any level of "peer pressure."

If only.   The problem is, of course, that most people succumb to it without even knowing it.

File this under the "unconvenient truths" and spread it everywhere.

[ProfessorPeart]

Another great side effect of Covid that is starting to take off now is unemployment fraud.

We live in Illinois. On Friday my wife got a letter from the Georgia Dept of Labor informing her that she has been declined unemployment insurance. Then on Saturday she gets another letter reversing the decision. We spent our weekend freezing all of her credit reports, submitting a complaint on identitytheft.gov and are now trying to get in contact with Georgia. Problem is, there phone lines are jammed and we can never even get into a queue. Just a message that they are slammed and it hangs up. Nice.

As for schools, we still don't know. We have been sent two questionnaires from the district. I think the plan is to give us an idea by the end of the month.